Fashion designer and entrepreneur Danielle Wyman knows how to make granny panties. Or perhaps more appropriately, she knows how to repair them. "My granny taught me how to sew when I was 7. She lived through the Depression Era so she was of that mind set," Wayman said. "She didn't have much money so she taught me how to mend clothing on her flip top Singer. That machine was probably a fire hazard. I learned how to sew by fixing the elastic in my grandmother's underpants. She's the person who really pushed me to be creative. She wasn't artistic but she could sew underpants."

Life would take a turn that greatly impacted Wyman and encouraged her to pursue her creative passions. "I was working at a law firm when my grandmother passed away and I decided that I wanted to go to art school. Fashion seemed like a good fit. Wyman chose the Art Institute in Chicago so that she could be near family in Illinois. "There was one instructor in particular that affirmed that I'd made the right decision. She used to design for Issey Miyake. She had this gold seam ripper and if she didn't like something, she'd just take that gold seam ripper and cut the seams out and tell you to start over. She ended up being the most influential person in my pursuit of fashion, aside from my grandmother. She taught me a lot of lessons with that gold seam ripper."

Wyman received her Bachelor's degree in Fashion Design from the Art Institute and lived and worked in Chicago for six years. She was still in college in 2007 when she started her line, Beulah B., her talents did not go unnoticed. She showed garments at Chicago Fashion Week in Millenium Park. It was during this time that she received the Chicago Fashion Week awards Dress Code and Fashion Focus as well as the Driehaus Fashion Excellence Award.

Another life event changed the course of things for Wyman. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer and thus, Wyman decided to return to Tulsa. "I was surprised to come back and find that the creative community here [in Tulsa] is really booming. I didn't expect to meet someone like Val (fellow designer Valentin Esparza) when I got back here. It's really exciting and inspiring to see that kind of talent here. I want to stay here. My life is here."

For practical purposes, Wyman has returned to working in the legal field while she designs and sews at night.

"Sometimes I'll be asleep and I'll dream of designs and I'll have an idea and I'm afraid I'll lose it so I have to get up and sketch it."

In fact, an entire collection has transpired while Wyman was unconscious. "I woke up in the middle of the night and got up and just started painting this fabric with dye. I just had to get up and paint it. I based an entire collection around that fabric. You really never know when inspiration is going to strike."

It is for this reason that Wyman is never without her sketchbook full of sketches of hourglass silhouettes, notes, clippings and bits of fabric. It is a journal of her art in the making. "I find inspiration everywhere. I'm so visual and tactile. I'm inspired by watching people and observing what people actually wear. I'm inspired by things in nature. I'm inspired by other designers. There are magazine clippings everywhere in my house. I have clippings coming out of everywhere."

To contain the creative chaos, Wyman has converted the extra bedroom in her house into her studio but she would ultimately like to have a studio in the Pearl District where she could design, manufacture and showcase her garments and jewelry. That's not to say that she'll be hiring staff anytime soon. "Right now, I have to have my hands in everything. From pencil and pen, all the way to the finished product, it's from my hand. I feel compelled to make it all myself. It's very hard for me to delegate the work on my garments because I want each and every piece to be absolutely perfect and unique," she said. "I know I've got to get over that because it takes a lot of time and work to create everything by hand. I want people to feel luxurious in what they're putting on. I want people to know that the garment they're wearing is handmade and there's nothing else like it out there. It's unique to them. I love to see people get excited about those things."

Her attention to detail isn't just in the cut and the craft of the garment, it's in the fabric as well. If she can't find the perfect vintage-inspired fabric to work with, she'll simply create it. For last year's Turn Tulsa Pink fashion show to benefit Breast Cancer Awareness, Wyman created a pink floral fabric that was inspired by the print of a vintage floral sheet that belonged to her grandmother. For this year's Turn Tulsa Pink she'd love to do "a collection inspired by (early 20th century designer) Elsa Schiaparelli's hot pink collection."

The influence of eras gone by are certainly apparent throughout Wyman's work. She pays homage to the '50s and '60s with her tapered waist dresses and impeccable tailoring and delicate, yet structured feminine details. She cites Christian Dior as one of her favorite designers and you can certainly see his influence in her elegant bombshell aesthetic. She creates the type of garments one would expect to see on Audrey Hepburn but that Marilyn Monroe would not find to be too demure to wear as well.

Wyman understands how a woman would like to look. "I design things for women who like to play dress up and look pretty. I won't design anything that I won't wear myself. The garments I design celebrate femininity. I want women to feel beautiful so I design things that I feel beautiful wearing."

You can catch a glimpse of Wyman's work in the upcoming fashion events around town. She will be showcasing her latest collections in April's Fashion Meets Art, in a fashion show with Valentin Esparza on May 19 to be held in the Blue Dome District, at OKC's Fashion Week in August and at Fashion's Night Out in September.

She surely won't be sleeping anytime soon.

After this fall's fashion shows and events, Wyman aspires to return to her roots and try her skilled hand at designing retro-inspired undergarments. She has come full circle. Grandmother Beulah would be proud.

To view some of the Beulah B line or to contact Danielle, you can find her on Facebook at facebook.com/beulahbb.

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